BBR

I think he meant less money than what the Bengals offered him in the contract that he turned down. It was reported to be 3 years at $95M total without guarantees in years 2 & 3. The 1st 2 years of the Bengals contract that he didn't sign, would have been more money than the 1st 2 years of the Ravens in total. The difference was that the Ravens, although lower was guaranteed in the 2nd year. The Bengals would have probably paid him the year 2 money - it's the year 3 money that would have been questionable on that deal. The Ravens might cut / trade him after year 2 anyways though, so him and his agent probably cost him money overall arguing over the year 2 guarantee. If he's there for year 3 of his Ravens deal then he probably made the correct decision - I think the Bengals would have cut him or pushed him to lower the last year of the contract if he had taken their offer. That's the point where I see him coming out ahead on the two contracts - just my opinion though.

Yes, and it looks like it gives the team a reasonable out if they want to cut him with a post June 1st designation in 2027 or 2028. Year Age Base Salary Prorated Signing Bonus Roster Bonus Workout Bonus Cap Number Cap % Dead Money & Cap Savings Cut (pre-June 1)Cut (post-June 1)Trade (pre-June 1)Trade (post-June 1)RestructureExtension Regular Per Game 2026 30 $3,500,000 $12,441,666 $14,000,000 $3,000,000 $350,000 $19,291,666 6.1% $12,441,666 $6,850,000 2027 31 $5,850,000 $4,666,666 $2,150,000 $3,000,000 $350,000 $16,016,666 4.9% $4,666,666 $11,350,000 2028 32 $10,673,000 $4,666,668 $0 $3,000,000 $350,000 $18,689,668 5.3% $4,666,668 $14,023,000 Total $20,023,000 $21,775,000 $16,150,000 $9,000,000 $1,050,000 $53,998,000

For what purpose? They did not want him on the team anymore. Their business relationship with him had ended. As far as a this supposed tag and trade bit... It's pretty clear at this point that he was asking for a lot more than he ended up signing for. It's also clear that nobody else wanted to pay him that much. He did not have the market for his services that him and his agent believed he should have. The team obviously realized that their only choice was to just cut him loose and be done with it. If you want to claim that they should have traded him last year then yep, they 100% should have. In hind-sight, that's the mistake they made.

If you're referring to the compensatory pick that's been discussed for Trey Hendrickson's deal in Baltimore, then you have to wait until next year's draft. If you're referring to why the Bengals did not get any picks for this year, then it appears they did not lose enough FAs that counted in the formula compared against the FAs that they acquired. You have to have a net loss of FAs to start.

I don't think they are getting a 1st round pick this year for him. Not now. The Ravens screwed the Raiders on that.

If I were the billionaire that owned the Bengals, I'd try to get Crosby for 2 reasons: 1.) He'd make the team better 2.) Pure spite This a business built on entertainment value. Think of all of the value that can be driven off of that move.

If it actually is 2 years guaranteed at $60M+ then that's a great deal for Trey.

It is crystal clear that the tag and trade was never going to work because of what his side wanted. Teams weren't willing to pay that much for him and they knew the Bengals wouldn't / couldn't keep him. That 3 year deal at $95M was a good deal for him and he turned it down. Him and his agent definitely fucked up. He's going to "luck out" and end up in Baltimore though. Will be interesting to see if they pay him now that they backed out of the Crosby deal and lost all of their other FAs.

It was reported to be his knee not his foot. Supposedly some minor meniscus damage and a degenerative ACL.

Maybe Eli actually was a better "leader" than those guys despite not being as good of a QB. Doesn't matter - the other guys are not done with their careers yet. There's enough time for all of them to win 2 SBs. This was just a weird thing to go on about anyways. Giving Jalen Rivers time to develop as a RG is perfectly reasonable. Before the draft last year, he described himself as a "guard that can play tackle". He's better as a left guard though but that spot was taken. He was a 5th round pick for reasons - the main one being that he was not ready to be a starter yet.

I can't wait to have Trey gone and no longer have the drama associated with the Bengals anymore. I'm at a maybe / probably with potential issues... They would have had to account for his salary on their cap until he was traded. Some of the teams likely to trade for him (ex. Dallas) would have had to do other restructures first before executing the trade. That accounts for over half the money they have to spend on FA contracts so you wouldn't be able to negotiate in good faith with everyone until after the trade was completed. If there was any sort of delay, you could lose guys that you legally tampered with for new contracts as they shift to plan-B - I certainly wouldn't expect them to wait on something like this. I can see teams being willing to call them on their trade desires too. That's also assuming Trey was still willing to work on things with the Bengals. Him and his agent could have fouled things up too. Honestly, they should have traded him before this past year in my opinion. I am at the point that I really don't give a fuck if they get something for him - it's well past time for everyone that he's gone. I wish him the best, but both him and the Bengals will be better off with him somewhere else. There were a lot of other players that were released that probably could have been traded for low-end draft picks but nobody is bitching about those releases / separations like this one.

All the legal tampering period did is move the illegal tampering period forward. There will probably be deals announced within the first 15minutes of the legal tampering period. That means there was tampering prior to that. It's so silly to me but you have to credit the NFL for making a big deal out of legally/illegally negotiating new deals and selling it the fans to keep driving their profits.

That's not what I was trying to say... It looks to me like they are taking 1 last, big swing for the fences with Jackson. Then they will have to blow it all up for a year, maybe 2 at the most. That future rookie QB (they'll probably go with a vet anyways) might end up better than Jackson, but the odds aren't great on that. It's definitely not a permanent thing though. Jackson probably has 1 year left on the Ravens unless they redo his contract and it seems he's always been difficult to deal with (no agent). Maxx's contract is probably a 2 year deal and then they trade him away to recoup some of what they lost for the eventual rebuild post Jackson. I think their only tight year will be 27 with some dead cap in 28. Even if all of this fails in 26 and they do blow it all up next season, they should be right back in it for 28.

RE: Maxx and the Ravens and maxing out their cap flexibility... Do I have this right??? Ravens currently have around $12M for cap space going into free agency. So they don't have enough to to take on the Maxx contract immediately. They first have to restructure Jackson's deal to add void years (probably 2) and free up space. So his contract will likely go from $74.5M against the cap to $37M. That gives them $49.5M of salary cap. They then take on Maxx's $29.782M contract for the trade which drops them to roughly $20M in cap. They can then do the same sort of restructuring on Maxx's contract to drop it down to $7.822M. That would then put them back at roughly $41.5M in cap. So they could still go after someone at the top of the market like Trey on a 1 year deal or resign Linderbaum and some other smaller contract guys. The problem is next year would then be the last year of Jackson's career and he'd have a cap charge of $80M+ without a reworking of his deal. I think he's looking to get to free agency, so unless the new coach wins him over he might end up a post June-1st cut (he has no-tag & no-trade clauses in his contract) next year to spread that final cap hit around some more. Next year will be another year of crazy QB deals as the young guys (Williams, Daniels, Maye & Nix) and potentially Jackson all get new deals. So... I think this is a massive all-in move by the Ravens and they are planning on it all blowing up (good or bad) next year. They might have to go through a massive rebuild similar to what the Dolphins are doing. That would be pretty brutal for a 2nd year head coach. They pretty much have to get to the AFC championship game this year.